The music at the beginning sounds like Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Great episode.

Danny on

October 6, 2011 at 2:19 AM

I wanted to like this story, so so much. It just didn’t come to a good enough conclusion for me But hey, what do I know! Great show guys!

Michael Bryan Walt on

October 6, 2011 at 1:01 PM

Another well done podcast, guys. And, a great big “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHAD!!”

Devon on

October 6, 2011 at 7:14 PM

There’s a ‘stone gun’ featured in several of Charles Stross’ Lovecraftian spy thriller Laundry novels. His books are mostly in the creative commons now and are freely available online. Ch-check it out.

Lord Tsathoggua!…Brother VooDoo seemed like a dying man ditating his will.
A love triangle!… That’s not Lovecraft of course, no matter how interesting it may be.
But all in all… great guys! By the way, I invite all of you to read my homage to the Master. It is a prose poem entitled: «The Eden of H. P. Lovecraft». Get into that paradise through the gateway of my pen name.

Grandpa Theobald on

October 7, 2011 at 10:47 AM

All around great show; and the story sounds good, too! ^_^ But, upon searching My Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia I can’t find a damn thing about the Emanation from Yoth. O_O And I really wanna know what it is, because I remember Yoth from “The Mound”!!

I’ve often wondered what Lovecraft’s ghost-writing clients thought of seeing their vague ideas for ghost stories turned into Cthulhu Mythos tales. I guess if you’re hiring a ghost-writer you can’t complain if it’s not what you intended, but I wonder if any of them muttered about “I just wanted an edit job, not all these tentacles and funny names.”

Phil on

October 8, 2011 at 9:06 AM

Happy Birthday Chad!

Mad Dan on

October 10, 2011 at 12:42 PM

Great episode. A welcome break from my stone gun R&D. Having problems with the time delay on the effect. Still hope to present prototype to DARPA early next year.

Sam on

October 11, 2011 at 12:17 PM

Great stuff fellas. While reading this story, I also definitely thought it would make for a cool cinematic adaptation. …But then I vaguely remembered this episode of “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” about some realistic stone statues.

Although it isn’t exactly an adaptation of “The Man of Stone” and Lovecraft/Heald is not credited in the show – I think it’s pretty dang obvious that the episode was HEAVILY inspired by this story, and ‘stole’ from it as well. There’s even a character named Henry (the guy who discovered the statues here), water that turns people to stone, and a love triangle (er, square). …It’s on youtube:

Another great episode, chaps!
I’ve tried getting some background on Hazel Heald and so far she’s proven to be elusive.
But as soon as I heard about the liquid that turns living things to stone and a love triangle I thought of the Robert W. Chambers story ‘The Mask’. Given Lovecraft’s feelings on that book it might, just might have been his addition to the tale.

While I appreciate the work that went into producing this episode, the story is a dog, so to speak.

It’s lacking the sense of mystery and a larger world that Lovecraft does so well. Instead of alluding to dark, hidden, inhuman forces, we get a detailed account of how and why everything happened. Case closed.

I suspect that Heald wrote an outline and hired Lovecraft to write it, and while there are Lovecraftian touches, the core of the story is too foreign to the rest of his work. LINO (Lovecraft In Name Only)

Akeel Ahmad on

September 7, 2015 at 3:09 AM

Nice episode, good story but the reader kind of ruined it for me – sorry.